New student welcomes differences from past districts

AJ Miller/Staff Writer
I never thought my senior year I would be walking into a new high school, but there I was on Aug. 20, at right around 7:45 a.m. entering Cedar Falls Tiger territory.

My first two years were spent at Waterloo West High, so I wasn’t a huge fan of the Tigers because of the huge rivalry.
After my sophomore year, I attended Wapsie-Valley. It wasn’t just a high school, it was a junior high as well.
After the first week, I thought I had made the worst decision of my life thus far. I absolutely hated it. It was one level with one main hallway.

Worst of all, I felt I had nothing in common with these people, I always heard talk about tractors and hunting endlessly. I’m a city kid. I like hanging out with friends, going to mall and movies, going on dates and cruising around the city with my music loud.

More importantly, I missed the whole high school rivalry. For example, if you’re going to the East High-West High football or basketball games, you take pride in your school.

If you’re attending a small town school, your biggest rival might be 30 minutes away, and it’s just not the same. It was a good experience, but small town living just isn’t for me at this point in my life.

When my parents divorced, my mom moved out here to Cedar Falls. So right away after the school year was finished I packed my bags to come live with her, although I wasn’t planning on attending Cedar Falls. I thought I could simply open enroll back to my home high school of Waterloo West.

Soon after, I found out that wasn’t the case. Waterloo West was already jam-packed and weren’t excepting any students to open enroll at the time.

So here I am, officially a Tiger. And so far, I’m enjoying it. For once, I actually like my classes. It sounds weird to me because I have always hated class. Maybe it’s the fact I’m 18 and I know I have to start taking life more seriously now that I’m an adult.
I’ve noticed some major differences between West, Wapsie and CF.

There’s been a lot of complaining about the new cell phone rule. The students here are lucky, because that rule has applied to me all my years during high school. At Waterloo West and Wapise-Valley, cell phones weren’t allowed in class, in the hallways or in the lunchroom. They were supposed to stay in your lockers, even though some students ignored this rule, me being one of them.

Hats also weren’t allowed in either of my past high schools. At West, if any of the staff saw you wearing a hat during the day, they could take it and you could pick it up from the office at the end of the day.

The same was with the cell phones, except after the second time your parents had to come in with you to get it, and with the third time the school could actually keep your cell phone until the end of semester. I know a few students this has happened to.
One thing though that’s unheard of at Cedar Falls is early release Wednesdays. We would get out around an hour earlier on Wednesdays. Instead students here get a day off every month or so. Three-day weekends work for me, so I am definitely in favor of that.

I look forward to see what the rest of the year brings. With the homecoming game versus Waterloo West getting closer every day, I just have one thing to say …
Get ’em, Tigers!

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